"You see nothing about me worthy of your respect? Are you infinitely superior to me—me?"
He looked her up and down. "Of course!"
Her eyes jerked wide open and she took a deep breath. "And just who do you think you are? A god?"
He shook his head. "No. Just better informed, for one thing. And—"
Koroby cut him short. "What's your name?"
"I have none."
"What do you mean, you have none?"
He seemed just a trifle bored. "We gave up names long ago on my world. We are concerned with more weighty things than our own selves. But I have a personal problem now," he said, making a peculiar sound that was not quite a sigh. "Here I am stranded on Venus, my ship utterly wrecked, and I'm due at the Reisezek Convention in two weeks. You"—he gripped Koroby's shoulder, and his strength made her wince—"tell me, where is the nearest city? I must communicate with my people at once."
She pointed. "The Stone City's that way."
"Good," he said. "Let's go there."